Logan Paul Is A Really Bad Influence & Role Model For Young People

Personally, when I think of the biggest influences in my life, I think of my parents. I think of my parents who were always around to teach me manners, priorities, and the distinction between what is right and what is wrong. But, the further I dig into what has influenced me in how I act and how I perceive the world, it also comes down to the movies and television shows I watched as a child, and the books I read. Just as much as I rely on my parents' teachings of how to tie my shoes and say "please," I can also quote Scooby Doo, Drake and Josh, and Spongebob with the best of them.

I remember when I was probably nine or ten years old, watching Cartoon Network while working on a bowl of Cheerios, and my mom turning it off because one of the animated characters said "dork." I remember being appalled and upset because, surely, it was not the worst word created.

In hindsight and looking at some of the current influences in the world, I understand now what my mom was thinking - the cartoons, while I didn't know it at the time, were a large influence on me. Which begs the question - are the influences on people today good or bad?

Naturally, there is no objective good or bad, and an influence is rarely intrinsically good or bad. However, I will be calling attention to a pair of YouTubers who are bad influences, while their large followings might beg to differ.

For those who do not keep up with Logan Paul, the Viner-turned-YouTuber has made waves in headlines over the past week for his less than favorable actions.

Logan Paul, during his trip to Japan, posted a video showcasing a dead body in the Aokigahara Forest, also called the Suicide Forest for its high rate of suicide. The video, titled "We Found a Dead Body in the Japanese Suicide Forest," included footage of a suicide victim and an image in the thumbnail Paul edited for upload.

During the video, Paul and his friends film the body and laugh at one instance while discussing it. Instead of being respectful and turning off the camera, Paul immortalizes a stranger's death on his camera, and then on the internet.

Since its upload, the video was removed and replaced by an apology video, in which Paul states that he did not intend to create such an outrage for the content, and he goes on to apologize to his fans, anyone who saw the video, the victim, and the victim's family.

Along with the apology video, a tweet contained an apology note. The note, in my opinion, is not an apology, but is a poor attempt to cool the fire he started. More so in the note than the video, it is not about the victim, but about himself. As the note reads, "I've never faced criticism like this before, because I've never made a mistake like this before," and "I do this sh*t every day... it's easy to get caught up in the moment without fully weighing the possible ramifications."

However, for someone like Logan Paul, who has a 15 million subscriber count on a YouTube channel which panders mainly towards teenagers and pre-teens, he should be thinking about every single detail he puts out on the internet. His net of influence is massive, and reaches so many people, most of whom are extremely young and susceptible to his actions.

As much as he may say that it was an attempt to raise awareness of mental illness and that he was not thinking correctly in the moment, Paul had his time to review the footage, edit it together, and choose a thumbnail. I question if he ever thought beyond the number of views he expected to gain from it, and the publicity he hoped to come as someone taking stance against such a serious issue.

Dare I say that, even if it was not the outstanding publicity Paul most likely wanted, the news coverage probably increased the traffic to his social media in a way that he still does not deserve for his insincerity, poor judgement, and lack of maturity.

To this, I conclude that not all influences are good influences, and that there is at least one intrinsically bad influence towards the children and teens who freely roam the internet every single day. Logan Paul needs to understand his impact beyond his own sponsorships and bank accounts before he deserves to reclaim his power as a top internet influencer.

50 Quotes from the Best Vines

In 2017 we had to say goodbye to one of the best websites to ever roam the internet: Vine. In case you have been living under a rock since 2013, Vine was -(sad face)- a website and app that took the internet and the app store by storm in Winter 2013. It contained 6-second videos that were mostly comedy- but there were other genres including music, sports, cool tricks and different trends. Vine stars would get together and plan out a vine and film it till they got it right.

It was owned by Twitter and it was shut down because of so many reasons; the viners were leaving and making money from Youtube, there was simply no money in it and Twitter wanted us to suffer.

There's been a ton of threads on Twitter of everyone's favorite vines so I thought I'd jump in and share some of my favorites. So without further ado, here are some quotes of vines that most vine fanatics would know.

32. "All I wanna tell you is school's not important... Be whatever you wanna be. If you wanna be a dog...RUFF. You know?"33. "Oh I like ya accent where you from?" "I'm Liberian" "Oh, my bad *whispering* I like your accent..."

7 Reasons To Get Excited For The Orlando Fringe Festival

The Orlando Fringe Festival is a two-week performing arts extravaganza featuring all kinds of acts from this city and others. It is also the longest-running theater festival in the United States, so it’s had plenty of time to get great. If you want the basics on how to attend, there is an article in the Orlando Sentinel that breaks it down for first-timers. But as we gear up for what is basically Coachella for theater nerds, here are just a few more things to get jazzed about.

1. You’ll finally be able to support your artist friends.

We all have that friend who is constantly involved in some sort of production. Of course you’d love to go and see them all, but who has the time? At Fringe, there are plenty of chances to see a show, since there are performances at many different times for two weeks. And if you have a lot of friends who are performers in Orlando, then I have good news! They will all be in the same place.

2. Two words: food trucks.

There is pretty much no other time when it is socially acceptable to eat a bunch of fried Oreos than at a carnival or at Fringe. Carnivals seem dangerous though, so you might as well just hang out at Fringe, where it’s safe.

3. There’s something for everyone.

Even if theater isn’t your thing, there are more than just a few alternative options available. You can also find concerts, stand up comedy, storytelling, and a whole lot of things that will make you say, “I didn’t know that was a thing."

4. This year, planning is easy.

In their 27th year, the Orlando Fringe has introduced a new way to plan which shows to see. The Fringe-o-Matic allows you to input the shows you’re interested in and create a personalized schedule so you can make it to (almost) all of them.

5. You’ll never have to travel far.

Most of the shows at Fringe are located in or around Loch Haven Park, and venues include the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, the Orlando Repertory Theatre and the Orlando Museum of Art. These are all within walking distance of each other, and are separated only by a parking lot (which, by the way, is free to use). The only other shows are BYOV, or Bring Your Own Venue, in multiple locations in Orlando.

6. It’s not just local acts.

Maybe if you’re an Orlando native, you’re a little tired of the local scene. This festival includes production companies from lots of other states and countries, so it’s a great opportunity to see fresh faces and shows that are the best of their respective locale.

7. Things will get weird.

Even if you’re a veteran Fringe-goer, you’re definitely in for a quite a few surprises. Last year, I saw a Canadian male burlesque troupe led by a Justin Trudeau impersonator (caution: link NSFW), and it wasn’t even the craziest thing that happened.

The Orlando Fringe Festival runs from May 15th to the 28th, so it’s right around the corner. It’s all happening so fast! But if you’re not hyped yet, maybe you should take a trip to the beer tent.